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has been known since ancient times as the location of the Mali Empire
and the fabled city of learning, Timbuktu. Trade in gold and salt
made Timbuktu a center of the trans-Saharan trade. From the 12th century,
scholars from throughout West Africa gathered at the Sankoré
mosque to study the Koran, literature, history, and law. Timbuktu
and many of the other great cities of landlocked Mali are along the
Niger River, a thoroughfare for commerce and travelers. Festival visitors
will learn of the Empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, celebrated
in the songs of griots (oral historians). Visitors will see examples
of sudanic adobe architecture under construction, hear music and learn
the dances of the Dogon, Bambara, Fulani, and Bozo peoples, see the
jewelry and tents of the nomadic Touareg people, taste the cuisines
of Mali, and learn how mudcloth is made from hand-spun and hand-woven
cotton. In the bicentennial year of the Louisiana Purchase, visitors
also will learn how Malians contributed to the culture and development
of the United States.
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